Systems and methods, e.g., optical apparatuses, for digital optical information storage systems that improve the speed, signal to noise, controllability, and data storage density for fluorescent and reflective multilayer optical data storage media. The systems and methods include an optical system for a reading beam of a data channel from a moving single or multi-layer or otherwise 3-dimensional optical information storage medium that comprises at least one optical element characterized by restricting the field of view (FOV) of the reading beam on an associated image plane to 0.3 to 2 Airy disk diameters in a first direction.
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5. The optical system of claim 4, wherein the foci of the first and second FES optical fibers are positioned so that their images at optical fiber inputs arise from planes equidistant on either side of the focus of the objective lens.
6. The optical system of claim 4, wherein a diameter of the first and second FES optical fibers is in the range from 1 to 10 microns.
7. The optical system of claim 1, further comprising at least one of a diffractive and refractive chromatic or spherochromatic aberration corrector in an optical path between the optical information storage medium and a reading optical detector.
8. The optical system of claim 1, wherein the optical system provides a FOV on the medium that is approximately the same size as a data mark dimension on the medium in at least one direction.
10. The focus error signal (FES) subsystem of claim 9, wherein the at least one other optical element comprises at least one phase plate window (W) and wherein (a) the at least one FES beam splitter, (b) the at least one first FES lens, (c) the at least one second FES lens, and (d) the at least one phase plate window (W) are configured, spaced, and arranged so that the first and second FES channels have their object plane foci displaced in the axial direction so that the light signals carried by the first and second FES optical fibers can be detected and processed to generate the FES signal.
11. The focus error signal (FES) subsystem of claim 9, wherein the at least one FES beam splitter comprises a phase asymmetrical beam splitter and wherein at least one of (a) the at least one FES beam splitter, (b) the at least one first FES lens, (c) the at least one second FES lens, and (d) the at least one other optical element are configured, spaced, and arranged so that the first and second FES channels have their object plane foci displaced in the axial direction so that the light signals carried by the first and second FES optical fibers can be detected and processed to generate the FES signal.
12. The focus error signal (FES) subsystem of claim 9, further comprising at least one optical element characterized by restricting a FOV of a reading beam on an associated image plane to 0.3 to 2 Airy disk diameters in a first direction.
13. An optical system for reading data from a light signal from a moving three-dimensional optical information storage medium, comprising: the focus error signal (FES) subsystem according to claim 9 and at least one optical element characterized by restricting a FOV of a reading beam on an associated image plane to 0.3 to 2 Airy disk diameters in a first direction.
14. The optical system of claim 13, wherein the medium is a fluorescent medium emitting a polychromatic signal and the spectral bandwidth of the polychromatic signal emitted by the fluorescent medium has a full width at half maximum (FWHM) bandwidth of 20-50 nm.
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September 23, 2022
July 2, 2024
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